Prime Minister Imran Khan performed the groundbreaking of Mohmand Dam in Mohmand District on Thursday. The Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the former chief justice of Pakistan Justice (retd) Saqib Nisar were present at the occasion.

Mohmand Dam, which is being constructed on Swat River, will be completed at a cost of over Rs183 billion by 2024. In 2003, the cost of the project stood at $1 billion which has now swelled to $3 billion because of the inordinate delay during Musharraf regime.

Upon completion, the dam will generate 800-megawatt electricity besides bringing about 17,000 acres barren land under cultivation. The dam will also solve the problem of water scarcity in Mohmand District besides saving Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera districts from floods.

Until 2018, Mohmand was an agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) but with the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it has now became a district – Mohmand District – in Peshawar Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was created as an agency in 1951.